Ian C.

🎤🎸🤘🏻🚨 Latest from The Repute: "Crisis Comms Under the Microscope: Dave Grohl’s Approach" 🎤🎸🚨 In this edition, we take a real-time look at how rock legend Dave Grohl is handling the media fallout from his recent infidelity scandal. Using data-driven insights, we break down the New York Times' coverage of Grohl’s crisis communications strategy and analyze what worked—and what didn’t. https://bit.ly/3MIZy76 The analysis explores: - The effectiveness of proactively addressing scandals before they spiral - Why timing didn’t minimize media coverage as others have suggested - The nuanced balance between controlling the narrative and avoiding sensationalism Whether you’re dealing with a major PR issue or simply curious about how the media operates during high-profile scandals, this edition offers valuable lessons for managing your brand’s reputation. Read the full analysis and let me know what you think. I’d love to hear your thoughts! Have a great weekend everyone! Will Valentine Publisher, The Repute Founder and Principal, Valentine Advisors

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Proud to share my latest Forbes Agency Council article,‘Taking Control: How Mining Companies are Redefining Public Relations’, where I explore a critical and necessary shift in the mining industry: the power of taking control of the narrative. The modern mining industry has a compelling story to tell—one of innovation, environmental responsibility, and strong community partnerships. It’s time we own that story. 📖 I invite you to read the full article and share your thoughts below - https://lnkd.in/gyiqwxgk #Mining #PublicRelations #StrategicCommunication #Sustainability #Forbes

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As I step into retirement, I find myself reflecting on the incredible journey I had as a corporate communication expert. I’m proud of my accomplishments and the success stories that defined my career. However, two occasions continue to weigh heavily on my mind, even now. Interestingly, these two moments are almost identical, replaying themselves in my thoughts. In both cases, I had crafted strategies that I considered among my best work. These were not just plans; they were meticulously designed roadmaps, tailored for success. I handed them over with confidence as I transitioned to new opportunities, convinced that the management teams would execute them flawlessly. I was wrong. What haunts me is not the strategies themselves but the realization that even the best strategy is meaningless without the ability to execute it. This, I believe, is what sets successful companies apart from their competitors. As a business leader, your most critical task is not merely to approve a strategy but to bring it to life. It’s easy to blame a strategy when things go wrong, even when, ironically, that strategy had your full support in the first place. In fact, it is perhaps your ability to execute the strategy that should be questioned. The strategy is only half the battle. Food for thought…

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20+ years of writing and reviewing press releases has left me with a deep hatred of the words "iconic", "innovative", and especially "paradigm shifting"! This is a smart piece by Eleanor Hawkins. And I agree - as long as the time investment is kept to a minimum and all parties are aligned on the goals of a "press release", there's still a place for them in the comms toolkit as a way to memorialise a moment in time. One add though. With data hungry LLMs looking for more and more content to ingest, and given the shift among many publishers to block the use of their IP, will we see a resurgence in the impact of press releases as influencers of AI answer engines? I predict yes.

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🌪️ Exploring the remarkable work of crisis communicators during Hurricane Beryl. Part 1 of a series. 🚨 New Series Announcement! In the next two newsletters, we’ll highlight the stories of two exceptional public communicators who excelled before, during, and after Hurricane Beryl ravaged the Houston area on July 8. The storm left over 2.6 million people without power, and at least 23 people died due to the storm and ensuing power outages. 🏡 Local Insights: Houston Summers Losing power in Houston is not just uncomfortable; it means all the food in your refrigerator spoils. After a hurricane, you're left with tree limbs and sometimes entire trees that need to be sawed up and hauled away. It’s a colossal mess, and people rightly expect their government agencies to help clean it all up and get life back to normal. 🌳 The Woodlands Township's Response: We’ll start with the story of how LeaAnn Dearman Petersen, CPC, CPM of The Woodlands Township, a suburb north of Houston, handled the impact. Next time, we'll share the perspective of the City of Houston’s Office of Emergency Management public information officer, Brent Taylor. 📅 Programming Note: GGF will be taking its annual beach sabbatical next week, so we'll be back with Part 2 on Friday, Aug. 9. 🚀 Stay tuned for more inspiring stories of public service! 🔗 Read more and subscribe to Good Government Files. https://lnkd.in/gQhWWDaA #CrisisCommunications #PublicService #HurricaneBeryl #GoodGovernmentFiles #EmergencyManagement #Houston

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Let’s dive into this week’s Association Insights video, tackling one of the evergreen questions association communicators always have: How do I get more reporters to attend our event? 🎤 Make It Newsworthy: Highlight unique angles, exclusive access or significant industry developments that resonate with your audience. The more relevant your event, the more likely reporters will see value in attending. 📧 Personalize Your Outreach: Skip the generic press releases. Tailor your invitations to individual reporters, referencing their past work and explaining why your event is relevant to them. ⏰ Time It Right: Send out invitations well in advance, but not too early. Follow up closer to the event with additional details or exclusive opportunities. 🎁 Offer Unique Incentives: Consider one-on-one interviews with key speakers, access to exclusive content or behind-the-scenes tours. Unique offerings can make your event more appealing. 🤝 Build Relationships: Share valuable insights and be a reliable resource year-round. Strong relationships increase the likelihood that reporters will prioritize your event. By focusing on these strategies, you can boost your chances of getting reporters to attend and cover your event. 💬 How do you get reporters to attend your events? Share your tips in the comments! #AssociationInsights #EventPR #MediaRelations #OnWrdUpWrd #Communications

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Why Strategic Communications Is a Must for Every Business Recently, many corporations have found themselves in the headlines, but not in the way they wanted. These situations underscore the essential role a seasoned communications leader plays in shaping a company’s public perception. Whether in-house or outsourced, having someone oversee the communications function is crucial. A strategic communicator supports your business plan, navigates challenging situations, and amplifies your story with priority stakeholders. Whether you're an early-stage startup, a well-established private business, or a publicly traded giant, each stage in your company’s journey requires a unique communications approach. Here's why prioritizing communications is a must for every business: 1.  Strategic Counsel and Advocacy 🤝 Communications leaders are trusted advisors, providing insights on public perception and aligning strategies with company values and goals. They evaluate how actions impact stakeholders, crafting messages for each audience. Integrating communication strategies into your core business plan prepares you to adapt to changing dynamics.   2.  Crisis and Reputation Management 🔥 Every business faces potential crises, threatening reputation and stability. A seasoned communications advisor is crucial for proactive crisis planning, working with leadership to swiftly address issues. They help preserve brand integrity by delivering transparent, honest, and timely information. As recent news cycles show, maintaining trust during a crisis demands experience and situational awareness.   3.  Brand Awareness and Storytelling 📣 Communications professionals build credibility with the news media to tell compelling brand stories through earned coverage or a combo of paid + earned. Marketing and comms teams must work in lockstep, ensuring a consistent, authentic, and cohesive brand message across all channels.   4.   Internal and External Message Alignment ✳️ Consistency in messaging across all organizational levels is vital. A great external strategy starts with an internal focus. Ensure employees understand business goals and their roles in supporting them. Aligning internal and external messaging maintains a cohesive culture and delivers a consistent brand narrative.   5.  Business Growth 📈 Strategic communication fuels business growth and transformation by crafting compelling content and narratives that highlight products, services, and initiatives. A communications advisor ensures an ongoing dialogue with priority stakeholders. Their awareness of current trends and media strategies enables you to seize opportunities and tell your story. Investing in a skilled communications leader or advisor is investing in the long-term success and resilience of your business. It's not just a nice-to-have but a critical component of a successful business strategy. #StrategicCommunications #BrandReputation #CrisisManagement #CorporateCommunications

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There is one question I ask every potential employer when I’m considering a new role in communications or corporate marketing. And the one that instantly tells me if the role is a no-go. 👉 𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗘𝗢 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? If their answer is anything less than that they see it as a strategic, business-critical function, that’s an immediate red flag. 🚩 Why? Because without genuine top-down support, comms teams are set up to fail. Communications isn’t a “nice-to-have”—it’s a strategic, essential function. If you’re spending half your time justifying the team’s purpose, you’re already on the losing end of that battle. 🫠 #Communications teams are the bridge connecting an organization with its audiences, both internally and externally. When empowered, they drive narratives, promote transparency, and build trust that resonates at 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 level. Internally, they drive employee engagement by creating a culture of openness and shared purpose, making people feel informed, valued, and connected. Externally, they enhance the organization’s reputation and credibility, cultivating trust, understanding, and loyalty with stakeholders. A strong communications team isn’t just valuable—it’s 𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 to an organization’s current and future success. . . . Do you have a go-to "red flag" filtering interview question?

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As evidenced by the dynamics of the presidential election, women continue to be held to a different, much stricter standard than men. In my book "WOKE: A Cultural Competence Guide for Communicators, I delve into why and how women continue to struggle for equality and representation. "Women’s quest for equality is the longest-running struggle in the history of the world. Men have ruled over humanity for millennia, and nowhere has their dominance been more pronounced than over the lives and bodies of women. Although women have made great strides toward equality in the last few decades, they continue to be held to a different standard than men, and society holds many unconscious and deeply rooted biases against them. Nevertheless, women continue challenging traditional gender norms, advocating for equal rights, and reshaping female empowerment narratives." https://lnkd.in/gsTAMAbc

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What is CommsConsultants.com? A global directory of elite independent communications talent, handpicked and pre-vetted individually. With more than 200 top-tier communications consultants across 20+ countries, this platform brings together the best experts from every communications specialty, all in one streamlined place. You can easily filter, search, and browse talent at a glance. Whether you’re a Chief Communications Officer whose top executive speechwriter is going on maternity leave, a start-up needing a fractional Comms or MarComm experts to boost brand engagement, or an agency leader working on a complex biopharma project that demands niche expertise (and fluency in French), we’ve got you covered. Here’s what we offer: - 25+ specialties - 20+ countries - 25+ languages - 30+ industries With 200+ highly specialized experts, each bringing 10-40 years of experience, this directory provides quick access to trusted professionals. Every profile includes all the key information you need to make an informed decision, and many even have booking links for immediate scheduling of intro meetings. What we eliminate: 🚫 No middleman delays. 🚫 No more relying on your network for qualified leads. 🚫 No endless scrolling through LinkedIn profiles. What we provide: ✅ Easy, on-demand access to curated communications talent for a fraction of the cost of a recruiter. Visit CommsConsultants.com and discover the future of communications consulting. I’m delighted to be part of this global network and look forward to working with some top tier comms talent across the globe. Thank you Ashley Dennison for all your hard work on this. We appreciate you a lot! #communications #marketing #internalcomms #mediarelations #smallbusiness #founder #entrepreneur #agency #global #CCO #CEO #COO #launch #innovation #consulting #commslife #efficiency #costcutting #strategiccomms #PR

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Well-prepared spokespeople are an essential part of any crisis communications strategy. But how do you ensure your spokespeople are prepared and have all the tools they need to succeed? Click on my piece below and find out. Then ping me! ICR

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Does your PR team know how to explain the work we do? In too many instances, asking different members of your team how to explain public relations may bring many different answers. The obvious problem with that is that it creates confusion. As we all already know, too many people already don't get what we do. It is less about saying the exact words but more about general cohesion of the story. If your agency hasn't gone through this exercise with your team, it is something to think about.

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PLANNING YOUR PROGRAM AND BUDGET FOR FY'25? If you're like most execs, the autumn weeks are when you make strategic and tactical plans for your organization for the coming year. During your planning phase, don't overlook your #content and #communications needs, and do consider the value proposition of hiring a strategic comms consultant. Why? Read on.

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Cision's annual 2024 Global Comms Report listed the following as top priorities for communications professionals: 🔹 Building sustainable growth and value 🔹 Ability to respond in a timely manner to changing marketplace dynamics 🔹 Customer acquisition/engagement 🔹 Driving revenue growth It's easy to link these priorities with external communications. After all, how can internal communicators impact the bottom line? The reality is, particularly in B2B organizations, internal communications is crucial. B2C companies have ads, influencers on social media and product reviews. But in B2B companies, employees are the main touchpoint for customers. And we all know that a more engaged employee is primed to sell with more passion and drive. The result? 4X the revenue growth (Gallup). A strong and effective internal communications function results in engaged employees, which in turn boosts productivity, reduces turnover and enhances customer satisfaction. It just makes good business sense. #internalcommunications #employeeengagement #customerloyalty #b2b

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The October monthly episode of our For Immediate Release podcast explores critical communication trends. Shel Holtz, SCMP, and I discuss six compelling topics, including Reddit's potential for crisis comms, the state of blogging in 2024, ethical concerns in celebrity news coverage, workplace connection challenges, and AI's impact across industries. In a blog post, I've set out some key takeaways that present opportunities for communicators, including leveraging Reddit for stakeholder engagement and preparing to guide organisations through AI adoption. Read more and listen now for valuable perspectives and insights on navigating today's complex communication landscape. https://lnkd.in/e5_CcMR2

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PRovoke Media recently published its 2024 Comms Index report. While the study focused on senior in-house communications leaders in APAC, the findings apply to what we have seen in North America: Lead generation has emerged as the key business priority, as companies increasingly expect the comms function to demonstrate its value and impact. Of note: ℹ️ Lead generation has moved up to fourth place in business priorities. ℹ️ ESG has dropped to fifth place (social impact) and seventh place (environmental/climate) ℹ️ AI is rapidly gaining ground. Usage and familiarity have increased significantly. ℹ️ The budget for communication is contracting, and the perceived value of communication functions has decreased. ℹ️ Measurement and metrics remain challenging, as higher-value metrics like awareness and behavior change still rank behind media clippings. The findings also remind me of something I recently read from Gartner: 50% of marketing leaders cannot prove marketing's value to their enterprise due to skepticism and traditional beliefs. The precarious macroeconomic environment and the high expectations placed on marketing and communications will continue to be challenging. For agency and client leaders, we need to internalize these dependencies and their potential impact on our work to better guide and support our clients. Thank you, PRovoke Media, for your work. Paul Holmes Arun Sudhaman Diana Marszalek Maja Pawinska Sims Institute for Public Relations #agency #publicrelations #PR

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